'Andrew McGahan’s first novel was not, in fact, Praise, that best-selling classic of Australian dirty realism. According to a Sydney Morning Herald interview from 2011, his first book-length fiction was actually a thriller in the style of Stephen King that was never published.' (Introduction)
'“She wrote weird stories with no endings,” one character observes of another in Joey Bui’s debut. In a way, this could be said of Bui’s writing, too – Lucky Ticket is a strange and spellbinding collection of short stories with question-mark conclusions, presenting glimpses into the ordinary and extraordinary lives of migrants. These stories often finish on an image, a thought or a reflection, rather than offering any closure – they are about lives in flux, ever changing and not so easily defined. Even when diving into matters of great emotion, Bui largely avoids sentimentality, writing with a pragmatism that will feel familiar to anyone raised in a migrant family.' (Introduction)
'The protagonist of Night Fishing is a woman alone and contentedly in place – in this case, in an unassuming coastal town near Woy Woy, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. This may seem an unexpected setting for a book of essays, but the protagonist here is ensconced in the ideal conditions to think and remember and dream; it’s unsurprising, then, that the essays that make up the book are also largely concerned with place. They centre on nature and landscape and water, and how we negotiate and navigate our histories and selves as we move through and within the environments that surround us.' (Introduction)
